Our November
meeting was Florence (Nightingale) and the Machine, a talk from Marianna
Shapland from LeedsWomen’s Health
Matters.

Marianna spoke
to us about the many groups and information services which Women’s Health Matters
supports, from its work with women who are experiencing domestic violence, to
its ‘SEEN’ group for people with various disabilities and its ‘SHINE’ group
which provides information about sexual health.

As well as
giving us lots of information about these groups she also gave us information
on sexual and breast heath, including showing us a mock-up breast with lumps to
show us how to feel properly for potential problems.

Marianna also
explained to us the value of the clothes and items we had donated, telling us
how much they will be welcomed, and how urgently they are needed.

Afterwards
Marianna took questions from people and expressed that if anybody did want to
volunteer with them, supporting people with English, emotional support or just generally
helping out to contact her at Women’s Health Matters. She also told us how
essential all donations of winter clothes, hats, scarves, umbrellas and hot
water bottles are, so we will be doing another collection for them at our
December meeting.

When I joined Buns & Roses in 2010 I hadn't realised that they have their own Book Club and
I was really pleased that they did - it would give me the impetuous to
make sure that I finished a book by a deadline as well as giving me
suggestions of books to read that I might not normally encounter (at the
first meeting that I went to we discussed Jam and Jeopardy by Doris Davidson which was certainly a different read) and have a chance to chat through them with friendly ladies eating cake.

The
Buns & Roses Book Club is really friendly, we don't worry if
someone hasn't finished the book, or indeed if they hate it that's fine
too! Everyone is fine to voice their opinion and most importantly it's
fun - we talk about what we think of the cover of the book and who might
play certain characters in a film version as well as discussing more
technical things like characterisation and plot.

We
all agreed that we liked how the book reminded us very much of being
teenagers and in particular Susan who is from America said that it
really reminded her and felt very well written and representative of her
time in high school much better in comparison to some other books that
she has read in the past.

Sam
who was new to Book Club mentioned that she had read the book slightly
differently as she'd seen the film first, but really enjoyed the book
and actually hadn't expected the form of the book to be the series of
letters that are presented.

In
terms of characters we felt that they were all very "real" and had a lot of sympathy with the main character - Charlie - and
genuinely felt as though we were taken on a bit of a journey with him
and saw how he developed.

Lianne
had been worried about how the ending of the book would transpire and
how some of the fairly serious issues would be handled, but actually
felt that it was effectively written.

We
all enjoyed the book and I found that I really enjoyed the references
to different music of the time and how his teacher recommended different
books for Charlie to read to help him develop both intellectually and
emotionally. I loved how one of these books was A Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger as the feel of this book was very similar to that, but the characters were much more likeable.

One of our Roses Alex Spence was leading the session. Alex is an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and a very talented crafter. She makes some yummy cards, hosts papercraft workshops and classes and sells Stampin' Up! products.

You can see more of Alex's projects and find out about upcoming classes on her blog: My Cards and Crafts.

Here are some of the gorgeous samples she brought along ...

And here she is demonstrating how to use the Big Shot die cutting machine.

Our Roses got stuck into the projects - working on three different cards and two cute gift boxes, just the right size for a chocolate to hang on the tree!